There is a lot of confusion about ported bits and why and how they should be used. This video goes into detail on the ported bit and gives your new information.

https://theperfectbit.com

First thing we have to know is, what signal is giving this to our horse? People that ride a ported bit, I ask them that when this is in your horse's mouth, and when it's going to rotate, it's going to pivot. So, when it pivots, it's going to hit on the roof of your horse's mouth and your tongue. What signal is that for him to do? And people immediately say, "Stop." Well, we have to go back and think of our training. Horses don't understand English. So, the only way they understand is pressure and release training. So the pressure is when it hits, what signal is giving that to your horse? And people say, "Stop."
And to prove that it's not I ask them, "If we take your ported bit, we're going to isolate the signal of this hitting in the roof of his mouth and on his tongue." So how we do that is we isolate it. I tell them, "If we take your curb chain all the way off, we take your tie down all the way off, you get in the pasture with your ported bit and take off running as fast as you can go, and pull on him, is he going to stop?" And everybody answers, "Of course he's not. He's going to lift his head and gap his mouth." And it's proven he doesn't know that means whoa, or he would have stopped. If your whoa doesn't come from your curb chain, how does a Hackamore even work? Because we're only applying curb chain pressure, and that's where our whoa and right is.

So, why would they ride it? They say, "Well, I understand that it doesn't ... That's not my signal. But I know I had more whoa." And I'll agree, but here's reason why. If you take this bit and put it in my mouth, when it rotates and hits on the roof of my mouth, and the curb chain is already tight on me, when my mouth gaps open, does the curb chain get tighter or looser? So, the wider he gaps his mouth, the more whoa you have, because he's applying more pressure to the curb chain to himself. So you have more whoa, but you've created these other problems, and it's hitting in the roof of his mouth. So if I put this in my mouth and it hits, and my mouth gets gapped open because I'm hitting the roof of my mouth, is my neck soft and supple? And the answer is no.

So now, my left and right is slower because I'm hitting in the roof of his mouth. I am getting more whoa, but now you know a horse, if he's stiff in the neck, when he does stop, he hits on his front end. So how do I get the whoa that I want without using this as that? I just ride a longer shank or a sharper curb chain to achieve the same amount of pressure he's gapping his mouth. But I leave his mouth closed and I keep him soft and supple.

Now the application for this is, is this. Reiners and Western pleasure people ride ported bits. But they train for it. And how they do it, you see these shanks are swept back. They'll bend them straight in line with the port. Then trainers in the past have taken a piece of string, tie it to the end of the shank, and find a weight or a bolt and tie it to the string. They'll put that in their horse's mouth. When the horse trots and lopes with his header up like this around the round pen, this is going to rotate every time and hit on the roof of his mouth. If he's semiintelligent, he's going to align his ears and his nose up with the angle of the port so it doesn't hit him anymore.

Then the reiner and Western pleasure will take the shanks and sweep them back. And here's reason why. They'll get the biggest, heaviest leather reins they can, and have them hanging as low down here as they can. The weight they've generated down here makes this shank come back, which makes the porch stick exactly straight up and down. Now the horse is going to stay in between that. Now to prove the reiners, that's what they're using it for, if anybody's seem a reining class, and the reiner got a 80 foot slide out of his reigning horse, did he pull on his reins to get him to stop? And the answer is no.

Because if his hands move too fast, it's going to hit on the roof of his mouth and his tongue. His head's going to come up, mouth open, hit on his front end and the judge is not going to like that. But if you'll notice when he does his big and his small circles and he's going around, he'll lightly pick up on the reins like this. It's going to rotate and hit. And this is the port. It's going to be in here and it's going to put pressure and the horse is going to go, "I know what that is, release." Pressure, release. So a port is designed for headset, nothing to do with whoa. So if we use it for that, the horses are not understanding that it's creating us other problems. So the best thing is for the ropers, bell racers, is not to be riding a ported bit, just go to a longer shank or a sharper curb chain to achieve the same amount of pressure.